The field of sensor research is very broad, ranging across fundamental studies into the properties of new materials, to the basic science of fluidics, and to innovations in device design and engineering. It also encompasses new manufacturing technologies, emerging use models for sensors, as well as scale-up issues for the production of innovative devices and services. Additionally, the field considers emerging markets and trends and is the basis of ‘smartness’ that underlies the Internet of Things (IoT). Moreover, the application space is vast, from how to perform sub-nanoscale in-situ measurements, to understanding human brain function, to modeling global climate processes.
The increasingly dynamic nature of sensor research and innovation, coupled with the breadth and depth of interest and activity, is generating a huge global output of papers and other scientific literature. This makes it progressively more difficult to identify key barriers to advancement, major unrealized opportunities, and challenges the sensor community is not addressing. Mapping this complex intellectual landscape to identify these opportunities and challenges is a daunting but vitally important task, as it can identify dead-end directions as well as fundamental challenges with game-changing potential.
This type of strategic “Prospective” forum is generally missing in the literature, the overwhelming focus being on the “now” (research articles) and “retrospective” review articles. To address this gap, Frontiers in Sensors has assembled a group of globally acknowledged leaders in sensor research and innovation, researchers with decades of experience and contributions to their field that have been of the highest quality throughout their careers. We have invited these ‘thought leaders’ to speculate on key challenges and unrealized opportunities that require a fundamental advance in the associated science, which, if achieved, could profoundly improve the world we live in. We will also include a number of young, emerging leaders in sensor research to complement the more established contributors. In this way, we aim to build a resource of unique value to the researchers and innovators, a resource that will grow and develop and will encourage debate in this fascinating arena of human endeavor.
The field of sensor research is very broad, ranging across fundamental studies into the properties of new materials, to the basic science of fluidics, and to innovations in device design and engineering. It also encompasses new manufacturing technologies, emerging use models for sensors, as well as scale-up issues for the production of innovative devices and services. Additionally, the field considers emerging markets and trends and is the basis of ‘smartness’ that underlies the Internet of Things (IoT). Moreover, the application space is vast, from how to perform sub-nanoscale in-situ measurements, to understanding human brain function, to modeling global climate processes.
The increasingly dynamic nature of sensor research and innovation, coupled with the breadth and depth of interest and activity, is generating a huge global output of papers and other scientific literature. This makes it progressively more difficult to identify key barriers to advancement, major unrealized opportunities, and challenges the sensor community is not addressing. Mapping this complex intellectual landscape to identify these opportunities and challenges is a daunting but vitally important task, as it can identify dead-end directions as well as fundamental challenges with game-changing potential.
This type of strategic “Prospective” forum is generally missing in the literature, the overwhelming focus being on the “now” (research articles) and “retrospective” review articles. To address this gap, Frontiers in Sensors has assembled a group of globally acknowledged leaders in sensor research and innovation, researchers with decades of experience and contributions to their field that have been of the highest quality throughout their careers. We have invited these ‘thought leaders’ to speculate on key challenges and unrealized opportunities that require a fundamental advance in the associated science, which, if achieved, could profoundly improve the world we live in. We will also include a number of young, emerging leaders in sensor research to complement the more established contributors. In this way, we aim to build a resource of unique value to the researchers and innovators, a resource that will grow and develop and will encourage debate in this fascinating arena of human endeavor.
